


In which faking it isn't very hard for them.

by IKHoldrige73



Category: Free!
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, also yes taiga and souji, but only briefly, its mostly just makoto and haru being dorks and falling in love?, this was fun to write!, yeah - Freeform, yeah?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-10 21:04:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2040117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IKHoldrige73/pseuds/IKHoldrige73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka needs a plan and it just so happens Makoto Tachibana--all time hottie fireman and a constant costumer at his restaurant--is there to help him out. Against his will that is, but whatever, details. They both get more than what they agreed on, but they aren't about to complain all that much. </p>
<p>(Aka--the time Haru had to get his mother off his back and told her he was dating Makoto; shenanigans ensue, of course.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	In which faking it isn't very hard for them.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cottontale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cottontale/gifts).



> Not-so-good plans, firemen in see through t-shirts, and a family that is intent on making Hau suffer.

Not his proudest moment, if he’s being completely honest with himself.

But what can he possibly do? What’s done is done and he’s not planning on backing off now—his mother’s eyes are boring a hole into him, but Haruka doesn’t give up; stares right back at her with the same intensity. Hikari Nanase is as tough and unyielding as her son remembers, but now she has acquired a stronger presence; something that wasn’t there when she first left to that business trip all of those years ago.

(Since he’s allowing himself this moment of honesty, he can confess he’s a bit scared by her change in demeanor.)

 

“I don’t think I caught that, dear?” she says, leaning forward as if to stare harder into Haru’s own  _soul_  “Could you repeat it, please?”

Haruka feels his left eye twitching, but gets it under control before his mother can possibly notice  _anything_ at all—he cannot let himself look annoyed before her this way. “I  _said_ ,” he purposefully tightens his hand around the man’s arm next to him, pulling himself closer to the other “I am already dating someone.”

The whole restaurant seems to have put itself into hold, everyone looking up from their tasks to stare at the commotion caused in the booth where the owner is sitting. The cooking staff is trying to get a glance at the scene from inside the kitchen, while the waiters all sneak a peek while they’re setting down plates and picking up orders. They’ve never seen their boss so  _expressive_  and it’s both parts off-putting as it is amusing.

Hikari lets out a breathy laugh, and finally let’s herself look at the other man sitting next to her son. Brown hair, stunning green eyes and broad shoulders, combined with a nervous smile that’s been there the moment Haruka had called him over to their table. He’s dressed in a simple black t-shirt, and fire proof pants that are already worn out and quite dirty. He doesn’t look like much and, other than his handsome features, he is completely  _plain_

The woman does not like this individual.

“Well, I have to say I’ve never heard about you,  _dear_ ” the man squirms under her steady gaze, looking everywhere but her own eyes, and Hikari can’t stop herself from smiling broadly—this is  _too_  easy. “Hikari Nanase at your service,” she puts out a pale hand forward “To whom do I owe the pleasure?”

The brunet is hesitant at first and, thankfully, Haru notices before his mother can. As sneakily as his position will allow, the cook pinches the man’s thigh  _harshly_  and the fireman’s head turns to look at him a little mortified. Blue eyes try to convey the simplicity of ‘Go with it’ and Haruka hopes that’s enough to get his point across.

Thankfully, it is. Finally broken out of his nervous stupor, the larger man reaches out to shake the woman’s dainty hand, smiling a bit more naturally this time around “Makoto Tachibana, ma’am, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

(And  _thank God_  he’s good at lying.)

Hikari is momentarily impressed by the charming smile directed her way, but she’s over it fairly quickly. As she retracts her hand back, she notices a bit of soot has gathered there and, with a grimace, she cleans it with one of the napkins close to her. Figures—the man’s a firefighter.

“As you can see,  _mother_ ,” Haruka is on his feet in no time, and Makoto follows him diligently. “I do not need you to keep looking girls for me to date—Makoto makes me plenty happy.”

The woman hums, looking between Tachibana’s flushed face and her son’s steady gaze. Something is not quite right with their dynamics, but she can’t quite place her finger on it. Sighing, she shakes her head and stands up, reaching forward to take Haru’s face between he hands. “Haru, honey, are you sure  _this_  is what you want?”

And, okay, Makoto takes  _that_  one personal.

It is true the fireman doesn’t know much of what’s happening—he was in his favorite restaurant, eating out with Taiga and Souji like was usual, when the owner had called out to him. The three firemen were known around the place, since they always ate here when they had the chance, but the cook had never felt the need to talk to any of them. When Haru  _did_ , though, it had caught Tachibana a bit off guard.

Nevertheless, he played along. If the pinch to his left thigh hadn’t been much of an indication, then Nanase’s blue eyes asking for help were enough for him to jump to the rescue. Somehow, it was easy to fall into the façade of  _boyfriend_ , and he was trying to act as much as was possible.

(Of course, Kagami and Seta’s quiet snickers that came from two booths behind him didn’t help all. He’d make sure to get them the double of training once they were out of here.)

“Excuse me?” he says, straightening up to his whole height as a mean of intimidation “I’m sorry—yes, I’m still standing here.” He tries to level his voice, so he can sound  _calm_ , but it ends up sounding a little strained. “Whether Haruka chooses to stay with me or not is  _his_  decision and he most definitely doesn’t need someone telling him what he wants.”

Which, to be honest, shocks a small intake of breath out of Haru.

Hikari is also surprised, though she’s way better at hiding it, and she leans back to stare at Makoto again. Again, she thinks there’s not much  _there_  at all—just a simple fireman with good looks and, maybe, a kind soul. He’s not good enough for their family. “Don’t speak out of line, boy.”

Haruka chooses this moment to finally talk again, sliding his hand down Makoto’s arm—wow,  _muscles_ —and lacing their fingers together. He tried not to pay too much attention to the way Tachibana’s skin felt a little hot against his—the man was probably burning up with a blush by this point—and fought back. “He’s right, mother. I chose to stay with him and that’s the last I’m hearing from this.”

—

It was  _not_ the last Makoto got to hear from the topic.

Somehow, both him and Haruka ended up invited to this party off on the countryside so that Tachibana could meet the rest of the Nanase family. They both had tried their best to decline the invitation, making up excuses—although Makoto’s schedule wasn’t as much of an excuse as it was an actual _fact_ —and failing miserably at it.

“So, what you’re telling us is,” Kagami was two seconds away from laughing his ass off at his leader’s poor fortune, although Souji’s cooking was proving to be an effective method at  _keeping his mouth shut_. “You have to leave for the weekend with a  _complete_ stranger, because his mother is an obsessive woman who wishes nothing but to break apart your  _fake_  relationship?”

When Taiga put it like that, it sounds kind of  _ridiculous_.

With a heavy sigh, Makoto nods solemnly, and buries his head between his hands. The red haired’s laugh bounces off the kitchen walls and echoes across the rest of the station, causing some of the most sensitive ears in the building to complain about the noise. Trying to hold back laughter of his own, Souji leans forward and slaps a hand over Taiga’s head, effectively shutting him up.

 “Don’t be insensitive, Taiga” the grey haired man scolds, although an amused smile settles on his lips “Makoto is doing this to help a  _friend_ , right?”

Tachibana only turns to look at Seta with the most intimidating glare he can muster—which isn’t much because, to Souji, Makoto isn’t above a cute little puppy—and huffs out, annoyed. Crossing his arms on the table before him, the team leader slumps forward and hides once again. He is not in the mood to put up with his comrades today, especially since Kagami is so intent in making him suffer and Seta’s passive-aggressive comments are more annoying than ever.

“I’m sorry, Mako” Souji coos out, as if it’s going to solve everything “I know you can’t get out of this because you’re too nice for your own good—Taiga and I shouldn’t be laughing at your expense.” He pats his friend in the back, letting out a good natured chuckle. “You should probably talk to Cap and ask her for vacation days this weekend.”

And, oh, how he wasn’t looking forward to this at all.

—

Haruka figures he  _should_  feel bad about dragging one of his costumers into this whole ridiculous ploy, but he finds it hard to muster up guilty feelings with how damn _hot_  Makoto looks right this instant.

They agreed Haru would meet Makoto at the fire station on Friday, so they could head out to the Nanase household out in the countryside from there. What the cook hadn’t been expecting, of course, was the state he would find his fake boyfriend in as he ordered around the station to finish the last details before his departure.

It all made to a pretty hot picture, what with that white shirt drenched in sweat and those damned sweat pants that hung too low on his hips—Haru,  _focus._

“You’re here to pick Makoto up, right?”

Haruka turns to the source of the voice and finds a very,  _very_  tall man blocking his view. He is one of those guys that usually come to Haru’s restaurant with Makoto, although he’s never looked  _this_  intimidating before. “Yeah,”

There’s a minute of silence, before the red haired man nods and walks away. He’s got an amazing set of lungs, with the way he screams at Makoto to hurry up and shower from the other side of the station, and he manages to cut Haruka’s waiting time in half. Before the cook even knows it, Tachibana is standing before him, decked in the most normal clothes his ever seen him in, hair damp with the traces of a shower.

“Ready to go?” the fireman asks, smiling widely at his—fake—boyfriend.

Haru nods, turning away from him and walking off to his car, in a feeble attempt at hiding the light pink that’s settled on his cheeks.

—

They spend the car ride over there going over details to strengthen their fake relationship.

They met when Haruka’s kitchen caught fire one evening—which isn’t much of a lie, honestly—and Makoto had gotten there in time to control the situation with ease. They hit it off instantly, exchanging numbers and going out on several dates before making the whole thing official. It’s been almost two years since then and they’re planning on moving in together soon.

“Once my mother is fully convinced that I don’t need a girlfriend,” Haruka says to him as he drives “You’ll be free, I promise.”

(Oddly, it makes Makoto’s heart sink a little in his chest.)

—

When it comes to  _actually_  retelling the story to Haruka’s eager, younger cousins, Makoto strays away from their original script. It’s not even an intentional slip—he’s talking nonsense away before he knows what’s happening—and he doesn’t stop himself once he realizes what happened.

“We got this call one day at the station when we were resting,” Makoto began, playing absentmindedly with the drink on his hand “And since it’s supposed to be a small thing, it’s just me, my two right hand men and one of our younger trainees. We get to Haru’s house and he’s outside, puffing and annoyed about us not being there sooner.” A fond smile takes ahold of his face as Haruka protests against this from his place, but the taller man continues all the same.

“We go inside, and, thankfully, it’s only the kitchen that’s burning, so we take care of that and it’s all done, but it’s routine for us to give out some security tips in those kind of cases, no? And we all hate giving security tips because we know no one actually  _listens_  to us—I mean, it’s not like we’re  _firemen_  or anything, right?” up to this point, everyone is listening to his story, and Haruka’s family laughs “We play a bit of rock, paper, scissors to decide, right? But I fail  _royally_  at it, so obviously I loose!”

Haru snorts, looking away when everyone’s attention is on him “You guys think I didn’t see you that time, but I did—you lost all three rounds and then proceeded to cry like a baby because, according to you it wasn’t fair.”

Makoto is surprised by this, and notices, for the first time, the way Haruka’s eyes light up when he’s amused at something. He chuckles softly for a second, before resuming his task “Well, it wasn’t like you made it any easier for me, Haru! You looked so pissed off and annoyed at  _us_  even when it was you who set fire to your kitchen!” the cook protests again, slightly offended, but Tachibana won’t let him continue.

“So, I come up to him and start giving him instructions on what to do next time and suggest, maybe, he should have a fire extinguisher around in case it happens again. I squabble on for what seems like an eternity and all the time his eyes are boring into me like he wants to  _murder_  me.” The living room erupts into another fit of laughter and Haruka finds himself laughing along “But, the funny thing was, he was _actually_  listening to me! It had never happened before—at least not to me—but he’s paying rapt attention at what I say.”

One of Haru’s cousins interrupt, a petite girl called Emiko, as she speaks up from her place next to the fireman “I’m sure it was because you have such a nice voice to listen to, Tachibana.” She raises an eyebrow in her cousin’s direction and smiles sneakily “Isn’t that right, Haru?”

The cook, huffs into his glass as he takes a gulp “Yeah, you should hear him at the station, I doubt you’d find his voice nice to listen to then.” He chuckles along his family before continuing “He’s  _loud_.”

It could’ve meant a lot of things—safer, child appropriate things—but Haruka’s cousins all take it the wrong way and they’re all squealing in delight as Makoto’s face turns increasingly red by the second. Tachibana is a spluttering mess of denial and self-consciousness, and the cook finds it increasingly harder to pull his thoughts back from the curve they’ve just taken.

—

They end up in Haruka’s old room and Makoto offers to sleep on the floor, because there is  _no way_ two grown men like them will fit in the safety of Haru’s twin sized bed.

It’s late and they shouldn’t be whispering back and forth like school boys, but they can’t help it. The drinks have, perhaps, finally gotten to them, and they’re exchanging a small, meaningless conversation between them before they’re even aware of it.

“Are you  _actually_  loud, though?” the question comes to Haruka as a sudden reminder of what happened back in the living room, and he’s blurting it out before he can stop himself.

Makoto seems to have relaxed a bit, although it’s  _for sure_  he is blushing by now “I-I don’t know?”

Haruka almost tells him to  _show him_ , but he manages to stop himself before that happens.

—

Haruka’s family isn’t all that bad.

Sure, Hikari tries to embarrass Makoto every chance she gets, and Haru’s father, Tatsuo Nanase, is intent on scaring the hell out of the fireman at every waking moment, but the rest of the Nanase clan seems to be very open with him. Haruka’s cousins have all included him in the activities that have taken place at the house, and his aunts and uncles all speak to him with respect.

“You’d have liked my grandmother,” Haru tells him as Saturday’s night starts to settle around them “And she would’ve loved you, too.”

Makoto doesn’t press any further; he’s come to terms with Haru’s silence a while back.

—

“Taiga, is Souji there?”

_“Huh? Yeah, he’s right next to me. Want me to put you on speaker?”_

“Please?”

_“Done.”_

_“What can I do to help you this fine night, Banana?”_

“I think I’ve fallen in love with him.”

—

Haruka hates his family.

Well, maybe hate is a strong word—he likes some of them and just  _dislikes_  others. They’re too noisy, too loud, too talkative, and too expressive—everything he is  _not_.

And they take too much of Makoto’s attention away from him.

—

“Kiss!”

They chant the same word over and over, all giggling and trying to hold back laughter, and Haruka just begins to think  _maybe_  hate was the right word to describe what he felt for his family. He huffs, looking over at Makoto who’s red up to the tip of his ears, and he has his hands up before him as he tries to placate the crowds.

(It’s not working.)

Huffing, Haru gets on his tip toes and presses a soft, chaste kiss to Makoto’s burning cheek. It does nothing to calm his relatives down.

“You call  _that_ a kiss?” one of his cousins screams from the back—he thinks its Masao, but he honestly doesn’t  _care_.

“Kiss your man for real, Haruka! Don’t be shy!” he can’t believe even his  _uncles_  are joining into this madness now.

Makoto turns to look at him briefly and Haruka only sighs. There is no way they can get out of this without actually kissing, so he just goes with it—his family is known for being good at pressuring others, after all. He gets on his tip toes a second time, grabs the front of Tachibana’s dress shirt, and pulls him in.

He was planning on making it short and chaste, much like the kiss on the cheek earlier, but Haru found himself unable to push away from the other man. After a short while, strong arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer to Makoto than he had been and giving the kiss a bit more depth than he had planned on. The Nanaes family cheered on in the back of both their minds, but they didn’t find it in themselves to pay much attention.

When they finally pulled away, they didn’t move from their places, resting their foreheads together as they stared into each other’s eyes. Makoto let out a soft laugh, hot breath washing over Haru as he tried to get his blushing under control.

“I’m sorry, mister fireman,” Haruka leaned forward to press their lips together again, smiling against the kiss goofily “I don’t think you’ll be free from me for a very,  _very_ long time.”

—

(They actually did move in together once their relationship  _was_  official—Haruka even managed to propose to his not-so-fake-anymore boyfriend once they had five solid years together. Taiga and Souji would never shut up about how they’d ended up together.) 

**Author's Note:**

> I swear to god I had so much fun writting this! Four hours of my life well spent on this, I promise! I hope y'all liked it and do leave a comment if you're feeling like it! Thanks to cottontale (aka foxicology in tumblr) for giving me the push I needed to write this and yeah! c:


End file.
